Monday, April 28, 2008 City health rues low availment of 'pink card' By Gil Alfredo B. Severino
THE number of entertainers, masseurs and spa therapists availing themselves of health certificate, popularly known as 'pink card,' turned out to be very low.
Records from the Environment and Sanitation Division of the Bacolod City Health Office (ESD-CHO), for the whole of 2007 and first quarter of 2008 show that less than 100 individuals availed themselves of EHS 102-C 'pink cards' on a monthly basis.
The ESD-CHO record staff said, this means there are more entertainers and nightlife personnel in the "flesh trade" who are "medically" in danger.
For 2007, the highest number of pink card availment was 72, which was recorded in February, while the lowest was seven and eight, recorded in November and December, respectively.
It was noted that during the high-festivity season from October (Masskara Festival), pink card availment was at its lowest onn the average, when people ar supposed to flock various night clubbing areas.
ESD-CHO officer-in-charge Dr. Grace Tan explained that by ocular inspection alone, there are more freelancing nightlife personnel who are sometimes transported by three filled-up jeepneys.
"There are quite a number of them in dark areas around downtown also that could not be checked by the CHO," Tan said.
Neither can police arrest them, as they have not violated the vagrancy law, she added.
"These are people of marriageable and child-bearing reproductive age (Macra) and most of them are of mid-adolescent years," Tan stressed.
"These young men and women are symptoms of extreme poverty. Some of them are even guided by their parents while processing their pink cards," he lamented.
Although, the number of pink card availments does not have direct bearing on the 40,000 squatters of Bacolod City, the presence of prostitution is indicative of the area's dire income needs.
